Posts Tagged ‘ecommerce’

What is the Role of E-A-T scores in E-Commerce Sites?

May 23rd, 2019

Online businesses are today dominating the whole world. But to stay in the rank of this tough competition possible with your available content and evaluator scores. Content matters where the whole game of ranking has evolved to a new level. For e-commerce sites, content equally matters to any other website. When Google uses factors to measure to website’s brand worthiness – three important factors are Expertise, Authority, and Trust or commonly known as E-A-T.

What E-A-T Means?

As above indicate E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trust. This concept is a huge ranking factor in many sites. Let’s discussed what these three terms actually mean:

Expertise:

The term stands for expert knowledge and skills. Here you need to show up your skills in the main content. Like, if you offer a service of that you have deep knowledge about, you are recommended as an expert of that field. Your website also needs your expertise to stay ahead of the other market competitors.

Authority:

Here you have to clear up the guidelines of Google to show that you have the authority to create main content. Likewise, expertise is a measurement of knowledge or skill level, authority is the measurement of how well you are doing. Small and new businesses really find it harder as authority comes over the time.

Trust:

Making your potential customers feel like they can trust you is such a vital part of an e-commerce business. If your brand is not trustworthy among your customers than your sales will be pretty much non-existent. Make sure that you stand on the points of trustworthiness box in E-A-T score.

Why E-A-T Scores are Important in E-Commerce:

Soon after updating the search quality rater’s guidelines in July, last year, the main focus shifted to the E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, and Trust) scores. If you want your shopping pages to show up high in the search, you will need to identify how to maximize your E-A-T score.

E-A-T is important in the e-commerce industry because the site pages or shopping pages are considered as YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) pages. And these pages are held to be the highest quality standards so for this reason expected E-A-T is also demanded highest.

Now, what content Google consider?…

The foremost important thing to recognize is that content is not limited to the text and raters are not just being asked to evaluate the text. They have to evaluate your site’s functionality. It includes your e-commerce website’s design, interface, usability, interactivity, and other important functions.

These quality raters are also reminded that high-quality shopping content allows users to find the products and purchase them easily. To determine E-A-T of shopping pages, there few things need to be able to find that give you positive scores. High E-A-T isn’t going to get you far enough if the amount of content is not sufficient or satisfactory for the purpose of the site page, so from here, you can start.

When search raters are evaluating site pages, the guidelines ask them to do something special checks for information like – contact form, payment policies, exchange & return policies, etc. keeping in mind that all this information likely be found under customer service.

Google’s rating experts are charged with thoroughly investigating each site’s E-A-T. So, in an e-commerce website, provided information and content of the highest quality across every page of the site is needed as well as checked carefully by the owner.

Conclusion:

Having good E-A-T scores benefit your e-store or online business immensely. The better you scored, the more successful your brand or e-commerce site becomes. Just consider the individual section of E-A-T score carefully to impress search engines and be ranked higher by Google. The search quality evaluators indicate that expertise, authority, and trust are central considerations for Google’s engineers.

Optimizing Your E-Commerce Store for the Upcoming Holiday Season

October 26th, 2018

November is almost upon us and we all know what that means. The countdown is certainly on in your area as well, followed by Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas” on endless repeat. Almost everybody is excited about it unless you are an e-commerce retailer. Just kidding, but still, holiday seasons for online store owner is completely different from that of his customers. Where your one half is pretty excited about making a huge profit out of the holiday season, your other half is constantly worried up about how to handle the store so that everything turns out ok.

Been there, done that. While preparing for the upcoming seasons, though it’s important to focus on driving the majority of consumers to your e-store, what’s even more important is to make the ones that enter happy and to get them in the mood for holiday shopping. The website you have been using the year-round won’t just work, it isn’t optimized for this festive year.

Now, I understand announcing promotions or start running sales in this month or the next is a bit early but that is simply no excuse for waiting till the very last to start working on things. In this article, we are going to discuss the various design and marketing tactics which can help boost the sales of your e-commerce site during this festive season.

Research Last Year’s Data

If you are in business for more than a year now, you need to start with studying data from 2017. Use your CRM platform and Google Analytics to find answers for the following questions and work accordingly.

Was it desktop, mobile or tablet that generated majority of the sales last year? In which month your site experienced heavy traffic, November or December? Did the sales remain consistent throughout the festive season or there were temporary dropoffs? What time did the sales and traffic starts getting to its usual? What promotions were most and least successful in 2017?

Organize your Inventory

First comes the navigation part. Make sure to provide high-level tabs to inform your visitors about what to expect while visiting your store along with shortcuts to parts of the site featuring attractive deals.

Moreover, it’s also a good idea to check out what’s currently popular on social media while anticipating the upcoming trends for the next two months and fill your product line accordingly.

Start Building your Promotion Strategy early on

Businesses always try to outdo one another, especially during the holiday season by sprinkling their website with special deals. Where the majority of the e-stores’ promotion strategies revolve around submitting their coupon codes on major coupon directories on the internet, you can aim higher this year by focussing on ways to leverage your visitors’ appeal in order to convert more of your traffic into making a purchase before leaving the site.

For example, you can use an exit-intent popup such as an instant discount code or free shipping at the time of cart abandonment to entice them to complete the purchase.

Make sure to have Plenty of Stock and Staff at hand

Another important aspect of preparing for the holiday season is to make sure that every product listed in your inventory is in stock, especially those you are planning to promote heavily. Your last year’s analytics will come in handy at this time to help determine whether or not you should consider buying more of a particular item to avoid the risk of it running out too early.

Similarly, if you are currently facing a hectic time managing your business with the present staff, you might want to reconsider hiring some casual staff to help out when the orders start piling up. This becomes all the more important if you are running your online store on your own, you will burn out even before the holiday season hits you with full blast.

Closing In:

Apart from the above-mentioned, there are some other ways too to get your website ready for the holiday season include-

  • Increase your website speed by ensuring that all your holiday pages are upgraded with best SEO practices in use.
  • Renovate your website’s design with a holiday theme to get into the festive mood.
  • Give your images a seasonal touch as well.
  • Add a retargeting pixel that follows the departing people on the internet and sends them targeted messages to entice them back to your site.
  • Test out the checkout process on your website before you start losing your customers over it.
  • Review and if possible, update your return policy.

You might think it’s a bit early, but the best time to start preparing your business website for the holidays is right now. While you are reading this article, there are many online shoppers currently busy jotting down their holiday gift list. So, if your holiday season prep isn’t already underway, get cracking!

7 Reasons to Use Ruby on Rails for Your Start-Up

July 25th, 2018

If we listen closely, why is there so much buzz regarding startups using Ruby on Rails? Though it may be assessable, is this platform really advanced enough to merit the faith in it serving as the coding language of choice for start-ups?

We can say, right off the bat, that Ruby on Rails startup-friendliness, which is often considered as the most important feature of this framework, isn’t its most prominent one. Ruby on Rails or RoR has proven its worth over time due to its flexibility and universality of nature, for a number of organizations be it start-ups or non-commercial organizations or even multi-billion corporations. Let us understand what exactly is RoR framework,

Ruby on Rails is an advanced multi-level framework that provides an open-source solution (written in Ruby programming language and based on MVC or Model-view-Controller architecture) which is primarily used for the development of web applications that employ databases along with integrating web apps integration with a web server/database server. Ultimately, the infrastructure of RoR provides a developmental environment for different types of web apps such as digital business, community support, statistics, collaborative work organization etc.

RoR has recently turned out to be an enormous online community to provide helpful advice and troubleshooting tips, all thanks to it having conquered a considerable market share along with the hearts of many coders and programmers that are constantly on the lookout for upgrading their development skills.

In simple words, RoR has proved to be a flexible, well supported and start-up friendly framework. Moving on, let’s get acquainted with some major benefits of using Ruby on Rails for your business and also try to understand,

Why are start-ups so hung on linking with Ruby on Rails?

Ruby on rails - Inner Image

  • Easy Learning Curve

Because of the simple use of English-like syntax and common language, RoR is much easier to learn than most other programming languages. Its coding is quite readable which makes it almost self-documenting and further avoids the time-consuming task of writing out separate comments or help text.

  • Cost-Effective

Since RoR is an open source network, you won’t have to spend a single dollar on its framework to create awesome web applications. Moreover, its “convention over configuration” approach also helps save ample amount of money. Also, when you consider the expenses of obtaining license fees for the usual languages, you will realize why most startup companies prefer Ruby on Rails.

  • It doesn’t Burn Time Up

Another important reason why startups love RoR is its efficiency in handling development time. RoR presents hundreds of ready-made plugins and modules that allows your developers to start building applications without the need to rewrite basic and repetitive codes.

  • A Secure Network

RoR emphasizes strict security measures in all its features that are already built and installed in the framework and activated by default. While using Ruby on Rails, you follow the Secure Development Lifecycle which provides a total and complete security solution for your project. Also, the RoR community tests and ensure the security of every update, plugin and application.

  • Better Scalability Options

The major goal of any application is to gain traction in order to attract as many visitors as possible. Ruby on Rails uses the RESTful (Representational State Transfer) architecture in order to make that transition seamless whenever your business needs active and consistent interaction with the rest of the world.

  • Easy Maintenance and Support

The RoR development community has created an effective solution by combining the benefits of both Ruby and Rails. And let’s not forget the RubyGems which is RoR’s very own Ruby Gem community hosting service. The synergy of useful communities and robust infrastructure has made Ruby on Rails one of the best-supported frameworks for startups.

  • E-Commerce Friendly

Today, e-commerce is the pioneer of most modern-day startups. With Ruby on Rails on your side, opportunities for featuring chat applications, maintaining a strong database and integrating complex web applications increases very much. All these features make it extremely e-commerce friendly.

Conclusion:

Ask yourself again, why should you use Ruby on Rails? Is it because of its suitability for both ultra-modern public websites that can easily compete with Single Page JavaScript applications or because of its complex enterprise core system applications that may look uglier but can effectively compensate with lots of complicated business logic and rules. Well, the real reason is because of its versatility and being able to compete with both the sleek and the powerful.

Magento vs. Shopify vs. PrestaShop Twitter Audiences Survey

June 4th, 2016

The importance of social media is high for each brand, as most of us contact followers with promotions, important notifications, feedback requests, and some brands even provide customer service via social media.So, we asked ourselves a question: “What are the differences of social audiences of main e-commerce platforms? Do they have something similar? Perhaps, they have some overlaps or similar locations, or anything else?” The presented below survey is designed to address these questions.

The survey covers the Magento Twitter audience, which is one of the most important social media for the platform, compared to the PrestaShop and Shopify Twitter accounts.

Key findings of the survey are given at the end of this post.

General Information

Magento vs. Shopify vs. PrestaShop Twitter Audiences Survey - ClapCreative

Magento is the oldest Twitter inhabitant, but much less active than Shopify, for example. Shopify also has the best followers/tweets ratio. Each tweet brings Shopify 9.2 followers per tweet, while Magento gets 8.4 followers, and PrestaShop -2.3.

Magento vs. Shopify vs. PrestaShop Twitter Audiences Survey - ClapCreative
So, total quantities of followers of the mentioned above platforms differ greatly, as it clearly demonstrated on the diagram above.

Audiences Overlaps: – 

But to be absolutely realistic this diagram should look like the following:
Magento vs. Shopify vs. PrestaShop Twitter Audiences Survey - ClapCreative

We analyzed 10 thousand followers from each account and determined that the audience of these three platforms has considerable overlaps:

  • PrestaShop & Shopify – 3.2%;
  • Magento & Shopify – 8.3%;
  • Magento & PrestaShop – 14.2%;
  • All platforms – 2.2%.

The overlap of the Magento and PrestaShop audiences is the biggest and mostly presented by digital companies and developers, according to the randomly chosen sample from the mutual 14.2% scope.

  • Marketers – 10%;
  • Developers – 20%;
  • Digital companies – 25%;
  • Non topical – 15%;
  • Abandoned – 15%;
  • Other – 15%.

All three platforms have 2.2% of followers, who follow all the platforms at the same time. We analyzed a 10% sample of randomly chosen following accounts from that array, and got the next results:

  • Abandoned accounts – 40%;
  • Digital companies – 15%;
  • Independent developers or consultants – 25%;
  • E-commerce news – 5%;
  • Other – 15%.

The quantity of abandoned accounts is significant in this sample and makes up to 40%, but we can disregard them. The companies and independent developers working at the junction of platforms or with all three platforms simultaneously constitute 40% of the total quantity, and this is the main relevant group.

Main Interests of the Audiences: –

The study of top keywords from the audiences profiles determines them as the following:
Magento vs. Shopify vs. PrestaShop Twitter Audiences Survey - ClapCreative
The main finding from the table above is that PrestaShop and Magento followers are much similar to each other. The structures of their main interests match each other greatly. More clearly we can demonstrate in on the diagram below.
Magento vs. Shopify vs. PrestaShop Twitter Audiences Survey - ClapCreative

As you see, Magento and PrestaShop Twitter followers are interested in almost the same topics and to the same extent. Their followers like “web” and “marketing” topics, while the Shopify audience subjects of interest are more diversified and directed towards “design” issues.How can we explain those similarities of Magento and PrestaShop Twitter followers? Clearly, the platforms themselves and their peculiarities can explain this phenomenon.

Magento and PrestaShop are both open-source e-commerce solutions written in PHP, what allows PHP developers work with them both extending their functionality. While Shopify is a SaaS e-commerce platform designed for SEM businesses and mostly attracts theme designers.

So, now we know that Magento and PrestaShop twitter followers have much similar and the Shopify Twitter audience differs from them in many aspects. But we can find out even more insights about those audiences, which greatly present the entire platform business communities.

Audiences Activity: –

Analyzing the frequency of posting on Twitter by those audiences we discovered that the Shopify Twitter audience is the most active. Almost 60% of its followers had tweets last week, while only 51% of Magento followers and 49% of PrestaShop Twitter fans tweeted within the same period.
Magento vs. Shopify vs. PrestaShop Twitter Audiences Survey - ClapCreative
And again, the distribution of tweets by days and weeks is greatly similar for the Magento and PrestaShop audiences (see the diagram below).
Magento vs. Shopify vs. PrestaShop Twitter Audiences Survey - ClapCreative

Audiences Distribution by Time Zones: –

45% of the PrestaShop Twitter audience is located near Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Rome, Madrid, Stockholm, and some other nearest European cities, while other locations are minimal for this platform.

The Magento audience is primarily described by three main geographical areas: Western Europe, the U.S., and northern India, near New Delhi. The European area of Magento is more widely distributed to the west and east, compared to PrestaShop, and the Eastern Time zone is the most popular in the U.S. for Magento.

The same as Magento, Shopify is interesting for New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, etc. residents, however, the Indian share it has is three times larger than Magento has in that region. Perhaps, it is explained by the policy of the platform striving to get leadership in India and South Asia.

Magento vs. Shopify vs. PrestaShop Twitter Audiences Survey - ClapCreative

Conclusion: –

So, the analysis of Twitter audiences gave us much information about the followers of the platforms and can be interpreted, to some extent, as a description of the platforms communities.

Key Findings: –

  • Shopify is the most active on Twitter;
  • Each tweet brings Shopify 9.2 followers per tweet, while Magento gets 8.4 followers, and PrestaShop -2.3;
  • Magento and PrestaShop Twitter audiences overlap by 14.2%;
  • All three platforms have the 2.2% Twitter audiences overlap;
  • Magento and PrestaShop have almost the same structure of their Twitter audiences interests primarily addicted to “web” topics;
  • The Shopify Twitter audience is the most active on Twitter;
  • Magento and PrestaShop followers post in the same manner by the frequency of posting;
  • PrestaShop is popular among users from Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Rome, Madrid, Stockholm, and some other nearest European cities;
  • The Magento audience is primarily located in Western Europe, the U.S., and northern India, near New Delhi;
  • Except the U.S. and Western Europe, the Shopify Twitter account is very popular in India, much more than Magento and PrestaShop accounts.

Note: The data is obtained using Simplymeasured.com

10 Reasons Why Magento Rocks for Ecommerce Development

March 11th, 2015

WordPress may be the undisputed king of today’s web world but Magento is the choice when it comes to ecommerce websites. It ranks as the refactor choice if you want to build high performance estores that deliver value to customers. No wonder some of the biggest brands, including Fox Connect, Vizio, Samsung, Nespreso, all use Magento as their platform of choice.

Are you a startup looking to get maximum impact out of its first ecommerce venture? Well, Magento has what it takes to launch you the right way?

Here are 10 Reasons Why Magento is Best Ecommerce Websites

  • Integration – You can easily integrate Magento with 3rd party sites and still run the core ecommerce features effectively. Payment gateways and shipping services work better with Magento.
  • Features & Tools – Being feature-rich and offering specialized tools are the primary characteristics of Magento. Whether is in-built SEO other online marketing tools, it takes the effort out of web promotion.
  • Multi-Store Capacity – Unlike WordPress, you can go beyond single online stores. Magento offers you the ability to run multiple estores using your trusted backend interface. The singular admin panel gives you all the basic information at one place.
  • Well-Backed – PayPal owns Magento and which in turn is owned by ebay. So, you can expect heavy investments to maintain its quality. It is constantly updated to meet the growing expectations of the ecommerce industry.
  • Awesome Community – If you stumble upon an issue, simply contact the community developers. You will most likely find that your problem already has a solution. The worldwide Magento community has grown significantly and now more connected than ever.
  • Flexibility – What you get with Magento is full-fledged flexible platform with functionality that traverses normal standards. Developers can provide solutions that work in accordance to client’s business goals.
  • SEO Friendly – Dynamic Google sitemap, SEO friendly URLs, most viewed products, in-built content management system and SEO features all make Magento a ready-to-use platform.
  • Easy Migration – Developers can easily move your current website from obsolete platforms onto a brand new Magento ecommerce store. The porting and migration capabilities are smoother compared to rivals.
  • Open Source – This open source community project ensures you have all the power at your hands. Developers can customize it the way they want. Need to tailor functionality as per your store’s products? Magento delivers that and much more.
  • High Performance – Magento offers faster page load speeds. You can meter other performance parameters along with competitors and see that it outperforms competition very well.
  • Scalable – You can employ Magento for small business estores or larger enterprises and still get the same performance out of it. It emerges out the winner no matter what scale you apply it for.

As you can see, there are more than 10 reasons to go the Magento way. Yes, you can have other platforms as well but nothing works like magic as Magento for ecommerce stores.